Life

Kachina dolls, Egyptian heiroglyphs, and paintings of the Ashcan School are among my first art memories, wandering the Brooklyn Museum as a child. I took classes there, at Brooklyn College and Pratt Institute, before attending the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1967. That training grounded me in color theory, architectural concepts, art history, and the creative process. Among my teachers were Richard Anusciewicz, Nicholas Marsicano, Helmut Wohl, David Vestal and Ken Heyman.

I worked as a photographic stringer, restless to see the world. I moved West, then traveled to South America, where I photographed UN and multinational development sites, and the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile. My photographs were exhibited at the University Art Museum in Berkeley, in San Francisco, and Washington DC; I co-produced a TV documentary and curated two gallery exhibits of folkloric tapestries sewn by women whose family members fell victim to the Chilean dictatorship. I wrote a biography of Chilean folklorist, Violeta Parra.

I was a single mother by now, worked in an office, did art and photography when I could. My editorial skills took me to Silicon Valley, where I worked for 12 years at Hewlett-Packard, writing and illustrating technical manuals, and socializing in Mensa. I exhibited locally, then astounded everyone by packing up and moving to New Mexico. My Vietnam-veteran companion had taught me to make mosaics. Through the years, I'd never devoted myself to fine and applied art, though I'd surely wanted to.

Now in Ojo Caliente, a high-desert village in northern New Mexico known for its hot springs, we have a studio, where I design and fabricate architectural mosaics on commission. My wall hangings may be seen at Las Comadres, a cooperative women's gallery in Taos, New Mexico. Digitally, my work may be found on Art Exchange, an online art brokerage firm and on Silverhawk, a national artists' portal.

Technique

Most of my mosaics are produced using the technique of opus sectile. (For a detailed description of them technique, see technical details.)

Other mosaics, created of small pieces of fired ceramic or glass (tessera), are produced by the technique of opus tesselatum. I fabricate the tessera of thin slabs of scored, glazed clay, then piece the image together using tile nippers and tweezers. This method is time-consuming, though the results can be exquisite.

Aesthetics

I derive much of my sense of what is beautiful from the immediacy of folk art and nature, including the high-desert mountains and awesome wildlife of New Mexico. Precepts of psychology and the creative process center me. I love color and take pleasure in juxtaposing tints and tones, using the liquidity of ceramic glazes under intense heat. Every time I open the kiln lid after a firing I am surprised.

Exhibits

La Peña Cultural Center; Berkeley, CA; 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979
University Art Museum; Berkeley, CA; 1976
Mission Cultural Center; San Francisco, CA; 1977
Amnesty International; San Francisco, CA; 1976, 1977
Institute for Policy Studies; Washington, DC; 1977
Hewlett-Packard; Cupertino, CA and Palo Alto, CA; 1992; 1993
Statements; Santa Fe, NM; 1999- 2001
Picasso's Piccolo; Madrid, NM; 2000
Of This Earth, Algodones, NM; 2000-2002
Taos Chamber of Commerce; 2001, 2002
Taos Open Exhibit; 2001, 2002, 2003
Taos Land Trust Auction and Exhibit; 2001
Las Comadres: A Women's Cooperative Gallery; Taos, NM; 2001-present
5000 Flowers: Artists' Responses to 9/11, a juried show at Fuller Art Center, Los Alamos, NM; Sept-Oct 2002
Dinah's, Kerrville, TX; 2003-present.
RC Gorman / Nizhoni Gallery; Albuquerque, NM; 2005-2006
Taos Invites Taos; Fall Art Festival; Taos, NM, 2005, 2006, 2007.

Publications

Commission, featured in American Craft, April/May 2003
Emerging Artist Profile, published in Crafts Report, August 2003

Grant

Sumasil Foundation, 2004.

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